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Voices of History

Speeches That Changed the World

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Voices of History

By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
Narrated by: Simon Sebag Montefiore, Heida Reed, Richard Armitage, Richard Goulding, Clarke Peters, Jade Anouka, Juliet Stevenson
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About this listen

 VOICES OF HISTORY celebrates the great speeches of world history and cultural life. In this exuberant collection, acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore takes us on a journey from ancient times to the twenty-first century: some speeches are heroic and inspiring; some diabolical and atrocious; some are exquisite and poignant; others cruel and chilling. The speakers themselves vary from empresses and conquerors to rock stars, novelists and sportsmen, dreamers and killers, from Churchill and Elizabeth I to Stalin and Genghis Khan, and from Michelle Obama and Cleopatra to Nehru and Muhammad Ali.

All human drama is here: from the carnage of battlefields to the theatre of courtrooms, from table-talk to audiences of millions, from desperate last stands to orations of triumph, from noble calls for liberation to genocidal rants, from foolish delusions and strange confessions to defiant resistance and heartbreaking farewells, VOICES OF HISTORY spans centuries, continents and cultures. In the accessible and gripping style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these speeches are essential reading, and how they enlighten our past, enrich our present and inspire - and hold warnings for - our future.©2019 Simon Sebag Montefiore (P)2019 Orion Publishing Group World 21st Century
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Absolutely fantastic and so engrossing. I picked this after seeing the book tour and am so glad. The acting is fantastic and, as another reviewer has said, the narrator's "f**k I've done that bit already" in the intro for Mao Zedong is quite funny but in no way takes away from the book.

Fantastic

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This is so well put together, the categories and the narrators. Some are amusing but I can’t imagine what it was like for the narrators to read some of the harrowing ones, it was hard to listen to some of them.
Thank you sir for putting it together, can we have another one please!

So interesting

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I don't know if audible editors ever read this but in one of the prologues (Mao maybe) there is a clear editing failure which means we hear profanity. it's such a shame that this is so common in audible recordings.

Otherwise this is a really good audiobook that is very well acted.

Excellent book, but big editing mess up

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The performance was excellent. Far too many words between speeches, should have let them stand on their own.

Rather disappointing

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There is a little blooper in the Lenin speech. Where the reader says “I’ve done that bit already”. Which was quite funny. I think I wouldn’t have noticed had I not been listening so intently! The book is well structured and the voices are varied so it doesn’t get boring. I will keep this in my collection permanently. Great book.

Engrossing Audio book. Good Structure.

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